Category: Drawing

Green Matcha Scones at the Cafe Vie

scones and coffee

Green scones are a new one for me: scone of the day at Cafe Vie this morning was matcha and white chocolate.

Lamy pen

I’ve just started working through the ‘100 prompts for inspired sketching on the go’ in John Gillard’s Coffee Break Sketching. In prompt number 2, I find that I can’t work fast enough to complete onr quick observational sketch between each sip of coffee in a single break, so this morning I’m continuing where I left off from a few shaky sketches I made at the Hepworth last week.

My new favourite pen for everyday drawing is an old Lamy Nexx with a broad nib. The broad nib flows more freely than my fine and extra fine Lamys, which might explain why, unlike them, it hasn’t clogged up. The broader nib gives a bolder, varied line, perfect for a coffee break sketch.

It’s loaded with DeAtramentis Document Ink which is waterproof as soon as it dries, which is a good idea as several of my sketches were partly washed out after one of my sketchbooks got soaked around the edges in my haversack during a Lake District downpour on Tuesday.

I’ve occasionally picked up a sketchbook when my hands are wet, blotting any drawing I happen to touch.

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John Gillard on Instagram

Cafe Vie, Thompson’s Yard, Ossett, on Instagram

My wildyorkshire Instagram account

Kalanchoe

kalanchoe

Kalanchoe, a popular houseplant which is a member of the stonecrop family. Its succulent leaves are dark green, smooth and lustrous and, with a whitish layer sandwiched between the upper and lower surface, surprisingly stiffish, like leather. This variety has primrose yellow flowers.

Flowers of a rather leggy pink kalanchoe.
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Categorized as Drawing

Potatoes

While we’ve been harvesting our first early Maris Peers these two shop-bought potatoes have been sitting, neglected, in the veg rack at the back of the garage.

It might be worth planting them.

Tomatoes

So tempting to add the colour but I’m working on my line at the moment.

Bottles

Some unfortunate bottles lurk for years, if not decades, in the bottom lefthand corner of our Welsh dresser.

TWSBI Eco-T

I’ve rarely used my favourite pen for natural history subjects – a TWSBI ECO-T with an extra fine nib – over the past year so it’s not surprising that the filler piston has got stuck.

I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never applied the silicone lubricant that was supplied with it for the piston the pen since I bought it in March 2018.

That’s over seven years ago. Oh dear.

I’ve also always used it with waterproof inks: first Noodler’s and in recent years De Atrementis. Perhaps a good soak will free it.

The pen back in 2018 on location at Charlotte’s Ice Cream Parlour (which sadly is no longer open).

Farringdon Road Bookstall, 1982

bookstall

I drew the bookstalls on Farringdon Road in August 1982 for a proposed book on London street markets, which sadly never got published. While drawing this I spotted Colin West, from my year in illustration at the RCA, in his natural habitat, browsing for a bargain.

Cowslip’s Warren

Cowlip's Warren

I drew the backgrounds for the Cowslip’s Warren sequence for Martin Rosen’s 1978 animated version of Watership Down. At that time I often drew with a dip pen with a fine Gillot 1950 nib using Pelikan Special Brown Indian ink and, as we wanted the feel of an oppressively sinister Victorian vicarage for this scene, we decided that would be an appropriate medium.

Cowslip's Warren

Because of the scale I worked at, my original drawing was photographed to be enlarged to production size and printed on matt finish photographic paper which was sepia tinted. The colour was added by another background artist (the one who wore headphones as he worked, but I’m afraid that I don’t remember his name, as he started work on the production after I left to complete my Sketchbook of the Natural History of the Country Round Wakefield . . . using my dip pen with the 1950 nib).

I’ve published some of my work on the film before but I don’t think that I included this drawing, which I’ve just come across in a box file of artwork from a 1980s folio which I was looking through in the attic.

Hand Exercises

hand sketches

I’ve been doing a few exercises to strengthen my right thumb over the past year but after a session with the physiotherapist I’m now adding exercises to improve flexibility in the thumb joints.

It surprises me how relaxed the joints feel after a few repetitions of these simple stretches.

I’d always that strength was the thing I needed to improve but flexibility, resilience and movement are equally important.

Triceratops, Albertosaurus and Satie

Erik Satie, who died 100 years ago last Saturday.

Triceratops

A young Triceratops was the star of the opening film in Walking with Dinosaurs #2.

Albertosaurus

I like the way the series links new discoveries and speculation about the lives of dinosaurs with the fossils themselves, filmed at digs in America, North Africa and Portugal.

Brought up on Ray Harryhausen dinosaurs, I would never have assumed that Albertosaurus might be lilac with a ginger crew cut but at that time we thought of dinosaurs as giant lizards. Now that we’re aware how closely they were related to birds the colouring makes sense: it reminds me of the prehistoric-looking cassowary.

sketches